Norquist has idea for Republicans — lift debt ceiling once a month

Anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist believes Republicans have leverage with President Obama in fiscal cliff talks: they can hold the debt ceiling hostage.

“They can give [Obama] debt ceiling increases once a month,” he said Wednesday morning at a Politico breakfast.

Norquist, author of an anti-tax pledge that some Republican lawmakers are lately backing away from, stuck firmly to his no-tax increases position and didn’t let any members of Congress who’d signed his pledge off the hook.

The pledge, once signed, is good “as long as you’re a congressman,” Norquist said.

Norquist said he didn’t believe the U.S. economy would go over the fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year, but he did say that so-called sequestration — spending cuts — would be a good thing. “You have less spending,” he said.

President Obama has reportedly called on House Speaker John Boehner to raise the debt limit before the end of the year, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday said the debt ceiling must be raised as part of an agreement on the fiscal cliff.